Barry Sanders sits at a large desk that’s essentially naked except for the basics of any modern-day business, that being a computer and a phone. The walls encompassing his office off Creative Drive, however, indicate his work area is anything but barebones. Large television screens are mounted on two of those walls, each reporting his business up to the moment, showing activity on various phone lines coming into the building or information regarding order processing.
One of those screens simply connects to the Internet, but after a moment the realization sets in that there’s actually nothing simple about it. That screen — on which he can pull up any part of the website operated from his headquarters — is the lifeblood of Trail Blazers, a vehicle accessory business. And it’s what has allowed a 56-year-old man with eastern Kentucky roots who grew up in New Jersey to turn a $20,000 investment into what he projects to be a $100 million-a-year business by the end of 2013.
“From humble beginnings,” Sanders said with a smile, “I’ve been doing this a long time.”
A total of 12 websites are currently operational, dealing with everything from custom rims to wenches for off-road vehicles and bedcovers for trucks, all for customers around the world. The businesses share many resources, ranging from various bookkeeping services and call-center office space to a 50,000-square-foot distribution center housed in the same building. But direct sales and other duties are often specialized, depending upon the product or job. It’s a far cry from the original business model he utilized when he first went into business 34 years ago.
Sanders founded his first business in 1978 in the Pikeville Industrial Center in Pikeville, Ky., with the idea to capitalize on the surge in off-road vehicles that had begun to litter the market. He continued on a retail-oriented path for nearly 20 years, dealing with direct marketing both locally and nationwide through various trade
publications.
The business eventually swelled to five stores, though he operates only one now. The original store has been franchised out. The majority of attention is instead on providing a worldwide service via the Internet.
Six additional sites are in development and expected to be completed by year’s end. Those extra sites will likely add on to already significant online traffic; according to Dylan Shrout, who oversees web development for Trail Blazers, most of the site brings in between 12,000 and 35,000 unique visitors a month. That number is dwarfed by the flagship site, truckaddons.com, which he said typically lures more than 300,000 visitors monthly.
Part of that is thanks to its decade-long presence on the web, as well as organic placement for key search terms via Google. For example, if a prospective customer inputs a generic phrase such as “truck accessories” into Google’s search field, the top results will direct them to truckaddons.com. That’s also produced a significant amount of new customers. Approximately 75 percent of all visitors to truckaddons.com are first-time visitors, with 85 percent of traffic to the other sites being from first-time visitors.
Traffic is also driven through various licensing agreements with manufacturers that allow Trail Blazers and its various properties to use their names. Those kinds of relationships have provided Trail Blazers with some brand enhancement, thanks to being aligned with iconic names such as Jeep and other brands that enjoy a high profile with the hardcore vehicle-accessory consumer.
Sanders said establishing additional physical stores is always under consideration, but for now he is focused on maintaining the New Circle Road location as a flagship store for the business. That means a significant upgrade and redesign to be unveiled this fall, aimed at not only allowing better direct access and service to local customers but also providing even more research opportunities on how to improve that vital online business.
“It’s very important, even if you’re selling the majority of your products on the web, to have a physical location, and not only for distribution,” Sanders said. “You have to understand how important it is to see customers face to face and interact. You can take that marketing, that knowledge and experience and apply it to the web. Then you can use what you’ve learned on a national basis to help a client in the local market.”